Blood, Ink and Champagne
by Unlaced Rose
Summary: Draco and Blaise discover something about Ginny that brings them together, they then decide to flee the war, abandoning everything for each other.
1. The Sunrise Pulses Red

It was 4:30 AM. The sun had just begun to filter through the curtains, rain could be heard gently hitting the window and Ginny Weasley was awake. Again. She sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed whilst pulling open the hangings. _Does it have to be raining? It's always raining._ She shed Charlie's old t-shirt that she had been sleeping in since the night he left for Romania; and pulled on her Quidditch gear. Flying always calmed her mind after a tumultuous night awake. She gathered her red hair into a low ponytail and quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping students around her, crept out.

* * *

"Blaise, Blaise? BLAISE!" Draco had already pulled on slacks, socks and boots. He'd pulled on an oxford shirt but hadn't buttoned it up yet; letting the front hang open over the bed as he lent over the body still deep in slumber. He nudged Blaise's shoulder with his nose before shouting the boy's name again.

"Mmph, wha?..." Blaise opened one eye, only to find he was staring straight up at the pale face and mussed blond hair of a very wide awake Draco.

"Wake up!"

"Urgh, Dray. Go back to sleep." Blaise knew that there was little to no point arguing with the blond bastard but he still did it every morning on principle. One day, _one day_ he'd convince him that he deserved a lie in. Or, you know, to wake up at normal peoples wake up time.

"Yeah, real funny Blaise." He threw the other boy a look whilst starting to bounce lightly on the bed, making it slightly harder for him to back to sleep.

"Urgh, fine. Let me get dressed. Still think it's way too early though."

"You say that every morning." Draco smirked and threw Blaise a shirt.

* * *

_Half an hour later_

"I quite like Hogwarts when it's like this." Draco had never fully settled into Hogwarts. It was filled with people he mostly didn't like. A large proportion of those being Slytherin who he disliked mostly because his father said he should like them.

"What? When it's raining?"

"No, when it feels empty and no-one's awake but us."

"Which reminds me, I should be asleep. You've kept me up the last two nights Dray, and then woke me up ridiculously early today."

"I was bored." Draco shrugged. "Do you know how boring it is to just lie there while you're asleep, snoring? It drives me crazy!"

"Well your insomnia is slowly killing me. I need a certain amount of sleep to function properly. And that amount is significantly higher than the amount you apparently survive on. Just occasionally, in the middle of the week where we still have classes to get through, will you please allow me to catch up on this ever increasing sleep debt you seem intent on making me accumulate."

"Aww, don't be like that," Draco pressed a kiss to his boyfriends currently pouting lips, "you know it's not my fault."

Blaise did. Draco's nightmares had increased drastically since last year, and after what the Dark Lord had made him do and see; he wasn't surprised. His father's attitude towards the failure wasn't helping the matter either. And Draco had had a bad sleeping pattern anyway. Blaise would just have to find a way to occupy Draco so he could catch up on some well-deserved sleep. Blaise felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked up to see a pleading look in Draco's eyes. "What?" he questioned. He knew when Draco got that look in his eyes it generally meant trouble or exercise- and not the good kind.

"Let's get some practice in, now Potter's gone we might have a chance at the Quidditch cup this year. And the pitch is usually busy later in the day."

Relieved that they were going to talk about Quidditch that morning Blaise woke himself up slightly more to fully engage Draco's attention towards the lighter topic. He always found it hard to 'deep and meaningful' in the morning. "I don't know; I heard the Weaselette made captain and she's a pretty good flier from what saw, maybe better than scar-head. Not bad looking either.'

"You have a one track mind mon chéri."

'Two, sleep rates pretty high too.'

"Gah." Draco rolled his eyes and pushed open the door to the changing rooms. He stopped in his tracks. There, under one of the showerheads, rubbing shampoo into her hair and humming was Ginny Weasley. A very naked and very wet Ginny Weasley, completely oblivious to the open door behind her.

"Move it Dray, it's wet out here!" Blaise's shoving brought him back to the present. Then Blaise saw what he was staring at. "Oh."

All of a sudden Ginny turned around to reach for something and caught sight of the two Slytherins staring at her. Her face froze.

"Get the fuck out, you perverted bastards!" she screamed whilst hurrying to cover herself up. Water and long red hair flying everywhere as she fumbled with the material and a pink blush covered everything that hadn't already been turned red from the hot water.

"Sorry, didn't think anyone would be up this early, Merlin knows I should be asleep." Blaise said smoothly whilst pushing his boyfriend back through the door. "We're terribly sorry to have disturbed you, knock in future and all that." There was a sneer marring Draco's perfect features.

Once they were out the door Blaise turned to Draco, "Seems like you're not the only one with problems sleeping."

"Huh?" the sneer transformed into confusion.

"Well you have to be up pretty early to have already finished practice by five in the morning. And no one with a reasonable sleep pattern wakes up _that_ early just to fly on a free pitch. Especially when the sun's not actually going to rise for a good hour and a half from now. Seems little Ginny Weasley isn't as perfect as everyone thinks she is.'

* * *

**A/N Ok, so at the moment I've decided to completely rework these first three chapters before I can proceed. I actually cringe when I read them back over so I'm going to sort that bit out. Rip out as many clichés as I can without completely losing the plot so far and make it a whole lot less melodramatic. This was published three years ago and a lot has changed for me since then and the way this fic was going then isn't where I think it needs to go now. So please bear with me while I figure this out and hopefully finally finish something!  
****Reviews would be awesome and make me remember to actually stop being lazy and do something!**

**Love always, Rose xxx**


	2. Like Blood from her Skin

**Sorry this took so long, but its longer than the last chapter. The chapter titles are coming from my friend M, whos writing it for me and this chapter is dedicated to her. Without further ado, here's the second chapter.**

**Warning: This chapter contains situations which are not suitable for younger readers**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the story line.  
**

* * *

It was true. Everyone did think Ginny was happy. That what had happened in her first year didn't bother her. That she didn't mind waiting for Harry as he went off fighting Voldemort without her. Her friends, family, even perfect Potter himself, and Ginny worked hard to keep it that way. Be it glamour charms and pretending to be asleep when her dorm mates came to bed. Not that they cared, they kept clear of her anyway. So when Ginny came down to the great hall with on her scowl on her face they questioned it.

"Hey Gin, woke up on the wrong side?" Neville asked lightly

"Malfoy and Zabini walked in on me when I was taking a shower," She explained.

"Oooh!" twin squeals from Lavender and Parvati. "They can walk in on me anytime," continued Lavender. Truth be told, Ginny couldn't stand them, they were too giggly and immature.

"When you were down at the Quidditch pitch?" the lilting accent of Luna Lovegood reached her ears as Luna sat down next to Neville and pecked him on the cheek, he coloured. Luna had been sitting with the Gryffindors since her and Neville had started dating over the summer. She said she didn't miss the Ravenclaws that much and that she always felt outcast from them. Ginny knew what she meant and welcomed her perceptive friend with a smile.

"C'mon, we better get to Charms. Did you do the homework?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, last night," Ginny replied easily.

"And by last night you actually mean in the early hours of this morning?" sometimes Luna was too perceptive

"Yesterday morning, and at least I did it!" Luna smiled and reached for the toast.

* * *

Lunch came around and Ginny and Luna were sitting outside underneath the Oak tree by the Lake going over the transfiguration homework that had to be in to McGonagall after lunch. Luna was throwing bits of Ginny's sandwich to whatever animal she believed feasted on cheese and cucumber. Ginny was staring out over the lake, happy in the silence she and Luna shared, the incessant chatter from Parvati and Lavender got on her nerves. Luna's dreamy voice broke through the haze in her mind.

"Look, isn't that Blaise Zambini coming over here?"

"Zabini, and yeah. What does he want?"

"Probably something to do with patrols, he's Slytherin prefect this year isn't he?"

Luna's suspicions were most likely correct and were confirmed when Blaise approached them and stated in his easy manner:

'Hey, we're partners for prefect rounds. So I'll see you outside the Great Hall tonight after dinner? Around 8?" his eyes never leaving hers.

"Sure." she replied, determined not to be fazed by him despite what had happened earlier.

'Bene, I'll see you later Ginevra.' Her name rolling off his tongue in his thick accent. He gave a wink and turned, hands in pockets. His entire movement gave off an air of relaxed nonchalance. (good)

* * *

7 hours later Ginny was standing outside the Great Hall. She could still hear the chatter from inside. Admittedly she had gotten here early but it was now 10 past and she felt like she'd been waiting for ages. She turned her back to the Great Hall and started to shiver lightly. She should have remembered that her normal school robe wasn't thick enough to keep out the chill that passed through Hogwarts in the colder months. From behind her Ginny heard a shuffling and a voice with an Italian accent said:

"Evening Ginevra, been waiting long?" a crooked smile played upon his face.

"You're 10 minutes late." she replied stiffly.

"Me scuso davvero. But I had places to be, people to do…" she raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him though it was no secret about Blaise and his flirtatious nature. He must have slept with half of the eligible students at Hogwarts and maybe a teacher or two as well. (I do apologise)

"What?" he asked in response to the look she was giving him. "Jealous?"

"Not on your life. Come on, we better get started on rounds. The sooner this is over the better," and she walked off towards the stairs, a tilt of her head indicated she expected Zabini to follow her.

* * *

They were walking on the 7th floor. They'd been walking in amicable silence and so far they'd had no trouble except for a few 4th years half an hour ago. They passed an open window and the cold night air wrapped itself around Ginny's bones. She shivered.

"Cold?" Blaise asked.

"The window's open and I'm not wearing enough clothes for September," Ginny explained stifling a yawn.  
Blaise looked at her. The grey wool skirt that should have stopped at the knees but reached mid calf because of her height, the thick black tights that encased her legs, the long-sleeved white school shirt covered by a grey sweatshirt edged in scarlet that must have belonged to one of her brothers due to its size and the regulation school robe with Gryffindor emblem on top. It looked more like an outfit for the middle of winter than early autumn. She yawned again.

"Tired?" he continued, "maybe you should go to bed earlier, or wake up later."

"It's not my fault I can't sleep." She replied indignantly, "and besides you were up at that time too."

"Yeah, not by choice though. You're not the only one with a restless mind that can't stop thinking."

"Huh?" he was confusing her.

"Insomnia, it's more common than you might think. And there's more to you than everyone else sees." He leaned in. His head dipping closer to hers.

She swallowed and moved backwards away from him. "There's nothing more to me. What you see is what you get."

"Well I see more than everyone else does then." Her back was flush against the wall now and her breathing quickened, her hand instinctively going for her wand that was nestled in the inner pocket of her robe. She was saved from answering when a loud crash was heard from the floor below and a Maniacal laugh followed.

"Peeves," she sighed and slipped under his arm which had been resting on the wall next to her head. "We should probably see who he's terrorizing." And she headed off in the direction of the noise.

* * *

Later that night , on his way back from patrols with Ginny, Blaise stopped by Draco's room before heading to the Slytherin dormitory. Dray was hunched over his custom made oak desk that his father had given him for making head boy, he was working on the potions essay that Snape had given them just this afternoon.

"Ciao Caro." (hello love)

"Evening Blaise, how was patrol with the she-weasel?"

"Not bad, you should give her a chance."

"Hmm, still don't understand why you wanted to be paired with her."

"You know, you and her are more alike that you think. You don't sleep, always cold, prepared to hex me when I notice too much…" he had seen her reach for her wand when he was questioning her.

"Yeah, well sometimes you deserve it, and are you done comparing me to the weaselette?"

Blaise leaned over, his lips lightly brushing Draco's. "It's just those cuts. What do you think causes her to make them?"

Draco let out a frustrated sigh. "Leave it Blaise! It's nothing to do with you!"

"Sorry, amore." He took Draco's hand and dragged him towards the bed. "Why don't you take my mind off the pretty red head then?" (love)

A low growl was emitted from his lovers throat and he felt himself being pushed onto the bed behind him. Draco's tongue bruising at the nape of his neck and fingers stroking lightly at the inside of his thigh, though his mind still on red hair entwined with blonde.

* * *

Later that night, or maybe it was early next morning, Ginny sat on her bed, the hangings drawn, with a hard look on her face. She drew a ragged breath and dragged the small blade that rested between her fingertips over the thin flesh of her inner thigh. Blood beaded on the surface and she exhaled. Her hands shook with tears mixing in with the red liquid she flopped back and rested her head on the pillow, where she lay, perfectly awake until the red sun invaded the sky.

* * *

**So? How was it? It's not going to be lovely bright and shiny, but it's also not going to be terribly dark, more like a darkened room at night that has the ****curtains open and a night light. Thank-you for reading and please review! I'd love to know what you think as I'm a bit unsure about this. Thank-you to all the wonderful reviewers who took the time to comment on the last one, I really appreciate it.**

**love always, Rose**


	3. Hair Falls Like Fire

**A/N I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to update, I just couldn't seem to get myself to sit down and write it. But It's written now and it's currently 5:27 in the morning which means I've been working on it all night, so if it's a little wierd towards the end blame the sleep depravity. Chapter name comes from the poem M's writing for me to coincide with the fic. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the story line.**

* * *

Blaise was sat on the bed in Draco's room. His hand covered in charcoal as he added the finishing touches to the drawing he had been working the last few nights.

"If you get my sheets covered in charcoal again Blaise, I'll kill you and never let you in here again."

"Well it would be hard to keep me out if I am dead, would it not?" Blaise replied easily.

"What are you working on anyway?"

"I've told you, you're not allowed to see it until it's finished. And I won't get charcoal on the sheets. It's not like it was my fault last time. Someone kept distracting me!" He glared at Draco as he added the last few strokes to the hair and another freckle by the nose before he blew lightly over the paper to get rid of any remaining dust.

"There," he said. "She's done."

Draco moved from his desk to the bed and leaned over Blaise's shoulder. He was only slightly shocked when he saw the face of the Weaslette smirking back at him.

"Her again? Blaise, you're getting obsessed."

"I'm not obsessed Dray, She's just intriguing. If you just watched her you'd see. And her friends don't notice a thing. Every meal time she's there, except Fridays, she's never there on Fridays, and they don't notice she never eats. Or if they do pay attention to her they don't see all the weird habits. She confounds me."

"See! Obsessed. You shouldn't know all these things; it's weird and faintly creepy."

"Stop being melodramatic. I thought it was meant to be me who was the drama queen in this relationship."

"Trust me Blaise; you have that corner completely covered. I was just wondering what Little Red would think if she knew of your stalking abilities," Draco was quick to hand the title back to Blaise. Blaise had always had a flair for the over dramatics.

"Anyway." Blaise continued, putting the portrait of Ginny with his others. The majority of which were of Draco. "Just notice her every so often. What she does, who she speaks to. I don't think anyone else does. But I also think that she doesn't want them to. I mean, why else would she be distant from her friends? It's not like she's unattractive, and smart too. What with being able to hex you like that in fifth year…"

"Maybe they're afraid of her," Draco cut in.

"What makes you say that?" questioned Blaise.

"Well it was her who opened the Chamber in our 2nd year. At least that's what my father said."

"Really? Hmm, I haven't seen any vibes like that. We'll look tomorrow. Right now I think it's bed time."

* * *

They walked into the Great Hall the next morning hoping to catch the red head before she came down to breakfast. Blaise had insisted Draco wake him up early but was currently moaning at the unearthly hour.

Draco pulled him along to the Slytherin table before looking up and seeing immediately the person they were "waiting" for in the mostly empty Great Hall.

'Seems you have to get up even earlier if you want to be here before her," he told the half asleep boy who was sat beside him.

Blaise looked up suddenly. "She's here already?" Blaise exclaimed, "It's half 6!"

Ginny was sitting alone at the empty Gryffindor table long perfectly awake, her head bent over with her hair that fell over her face obscuring it from view. She was rolling an orange between her hands. Her nails piercing the skin as she manipulated it. Juice was seeping out and drenching her hands. Every so often she would lick the juice of her right hand and turn the page of the book that lay open on the table.

"What do you think she's reading?" Blaise asked, apparently awake now. His eyes fixated on the unaware Gryffindor.

"No idea," Draco was also concentrating solely on the girl opposite him.

Ginny looked up suddenly and glanced around before eyeing Blaise and Draco. She smirked and put her book face down on the table before slowly un-peeling the orange, the skin loose from her earlier ministrations, and placed one segment in her mouth. Her eyes closing as her lips did. A smile formed as she gently bit into the flesh of the orange and swallowed. Her tongue flicking out to catch the drop that remained at the corner of her mouth. She savoured the rest of the orange in the same way. Occasionally pausing to remove a pip from her mouth and placing it carefully on the plate in front of her.

The two boys watched stunned as she finished, wiped her hands on her napkin and went back to reading her book, completely oblivious once more.

"Well she doesn't appear to have any problems eating an orange," Blaise was smirking .

"Evan if she did have problems with food, Oranges would be okay. They're often referred to as a "safe" food because of the low calorie and fat content. It would be no big thing to have, especially this early in the morning," Draco replied noncommittally. "Did you finish the homework for Snape?"

"Err… Yeah, I think I did enough." They carried on talking about homework as they rest of the hall filled up.

Ginny glanced at her watched. 7:06! They'd be coming in any moment. She checked to see if anyone was watching her. Luckily everyone was too engrossed in what they were doing to take notice of her. Even Malfoy and Zabini were busy. She grabbed her napkin and placed it open on her lap. Then she started pilling food onto her plate before ripping bits off and cutting it up. The centre from a slice of toast, half a sausage, most of a fried egg got deposited into the open napkin on her knee. When she had done her plate looked like she had just finished a large breakfast. She had just stashed the ball of food in her bag when she heard a voice call her name.

"Ginny! Hey, you're up early."

She looked up and saw Neville's face smiling down at her. Lavender and Parvati close behind.

"Hi Neville. You know me. I like to get up before all the good stuff's gone. But it seems like I've forgotten my Herbology text book. I'm just going to go and get it. I'll see you later. She waved and picked up her bag and book before turning she said:

"Oh Neville, you have toothpaste on your jumper by the way." She then carried on back to the Gryffindor common room, via the nearest girls' toilet to flush the package of food down the loo.

* * *

Blaise was disarming Draco in DADA and they were murmuring quietly about this morning.

"Her friends seem normal enough towards her. I can't sense any fear or anything," Blaise was saying as Draco's wand flew out of its owners hand and landed in his own. "And it was her who left when they arrived."

Draco was looking bored. He wasn't paying attention to what Blaise was doing with his wand, hence why Blaise had managed to disarm him. "She's unusual, I'll give you that. I've never seen anyone get so much pleasure from an orange."

"So I have your permission then?" inquired Blaise.

"What? My permission? Since when do you need my permission to do anything?"

"Never. Usually but you're practically involved already. You never know, you might want to be more so…" he trailed off.

"Haha Blaise, very funny. Just don't mess her up any more than it looks like she is already. We don't want a suicidal Weasley on our hands.

* * *

They'd been walking for an hour already. Blaise was asking Ginny random question and she was replying with one – or very few – word answers.

"So… What are your hobbies? What do you like to do? Any significant interests?" his questions barley stopped enough for her to speak.

"Erm, I like to fly I guess. Are you always this hyper?" she replied wearily.

"Of course! You're on the quidditch team. And yup, except in the mornings or when I'm hungry. But I usually have a better output for my energy than wandering empty halls."

"I guess the Carrows really have scared everyone into going to bed on time."

"Or they're just getting better at hiding the fact that they're out of bed. Or in the wrong bed." a smirk played across his lips. "What else do you do, apart from fly? We've been patrolling 3 nights a week for ages now and I barely know anything about you."

"Well… I guess there isn't that much to tell, Like I told you, what you see is what you get."

"Come on, there must be more," he said insistently.

"Errr… I play the guitar a little. My brother Charlie taught me."

"Oooh! So you are musically gifted. See, that is something." his Italian accent was more pronounced when we was excited.

"I wouldn't say gifted, just average maybe."

"But you write your own stuff?" he continued.

"A few, but they're nothing major."

He gave her a wink and said, "You will have to play for me. Some time soon."

"I…err… can't. I don't have one of my own. A guitar that is. I just borrow Charlie's when he comes home."

"Aww well, that is shame isn't it. I guess we shall have to find our way around that," he replied without missing a beat. "Maybe you could borrow one."

"Nothing fazes you does it?" she was doing the inquiring now for the first time all evening. Se looked properly at the Italian Slytherin that stood opposite her. His natural confidence and bounciness. The way he slipped into Italian sometimes, just random words here and there. She looked at his big, lop-sided grin and cobalt blue eyes that made her feel like he could tell when she was lying to him.

He had backed her against the wall again. His arms lower this time so she couldn't slip under them this time. His face was close to hers.

"Niente," his eyes probed hers, "well not nothing, I'm not boastful." (Nothing)

"You're not modest either," she replied, determined not to be fazed by his close proximity.

"Ahh, but you are too modest, are you not? And which is worse?"

And then his lips were against hers. Insistent. She could smell grapefruits and lemongrass. His hands were on her waist making their way upwards to tangle in her hair. It took her a moment before she realised what was happening before she kissed him back fiercely. Her back was pushed against the cold stone walls as he kissed a trail to her earlobe and then downwards towards her protruding collarbone. One hand reached down to rest in the small of her back, pulling her closer to him. The other settled to softly cup her small breast through her shirt. Ginny's conscious thoughts were on the brink of disappearing entirely and she wanted to succumb to this blissful oblivion desperately. But she couldn't.

"Stop. We have to stop," she breathed.

"Why? I see no reason to," he looked puzzled.

"Because we do!" she pushed firmly against his chest until he moved back. "I'll see you tomorrow at 8 for patrols as usual." And with that she walked off, heading back to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

"Wait, so _she_ left _you_ standing alone in an empty corridor?" Draco was disbelieving when Blaise told him what had happened. "Serves you right mon amour, you shouldn't interfere with her. She may not be very healthy but she's still got fire. If you play with it you'll only get burned." (my love)

"Ahh but the fun is to be had in seeing how big we can make the flame, and then how fast we can run from it when it explodes."

"Je ne sais pas Blaise. I think this Petite Feu is stronger than you think. (I don't know, Little Flame)

* * *

**A/N Thank-you for reading, please review they are the only thing that keps me posting, I'd be quite happy to sit around daydreaming about this fic but then I see the reviews and I feel quilty for not updating and the guilt builds and builds until I can't stand it anymore and acctually force myself to write. Thank-you to all the wonderful reviews last time, they mean so much to me. **

**Love always**

**Unlaced x**


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